Freedom RidesBy. Hunter Ulberg and Dominic Toese

During the Civil Rights movement several individuals, groups and events caused segregation to eventually be abolished. A huge contributor on efforts to ending segregation in the 1960's was a group called Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE), who united the Freedom Riders.

The Freedom Ride was a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. The Ride happened in 1947. It challenged state segregation laws on buses in the south. This 2 week ride inspired the later Freedom Riders in the 1960's.

13 African-American and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides On May 4, 1961. The Riders were recruited by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

A bus with freedom riders was bombed in Alabama in 1961.

On May 14, 1961, the Greyhound bus was the first to arrive in Anniston, Alabama. There, an angry mob of about 200 white people surrounded the bus, causing the driver to continue past the bus station. The mob followed the bus in automobiles, and when the tires on the bus blew out, someone threw a bomb into the bus.

On May 24, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders departed Montgomery for Jackson, Mississippi. There, several hundred supporters greeted the riders. However, those who attempted to use the whites-only facilities were arrested for trespassing and taken to the maximum-security penitentiary in Parchman, Mississippi.